October 2011

Last week an orthodox Jewish woman posted the following on Reddit.com: I am a lesbian marrying a gay man. We are out to each other and our closest friends. We both grew up in religious, traditional communities so we decided this was best for us. We both travel a lot so we are able to “explore” outside of the marriage. Ask away… Edit: we are…

A new docudrama about exorcism is making the news. A recent movie called The Rite was based on the real life tales of a priest named Father Gary Thomas. Now Father Thomas is telling the world his experiences through the docudrama. In Catholicism, exorcism is the process of removing the devil from one who has been possessed or attached by the devil. A priest who…

One of the more dramatic events in my lifetime has been the recent release of Gilad Shalit. I think most Jews thought he would never go home. He was released, the price was very high and now a week later we can reflect on the deal and its ramifications. Perhaps the two biggest complaints that supporters of Israel have expressed are related not to Shalit,…

Over Yom Tov I read some great books and articles. I hope to share some of them with you over the next couple of weeks. Perhaps the most compelling book I read was hot off the presses: Strictly Kosher Reading by Yoel Finkelman. Briefly, the purpose of the book is to present an academic study of the fiction and non-fiction reading that is published within the charedi…

This is cute. Showcasing basketball leagues across the country, this Nike ad includes the “Jewish Under 40 League” in Brooklyn. I have no idea if they are actors or bona fide “Jewish Under 40 League” ball players, but the cameo of the rabbinic looking figure on the sideline has got to be the funniest part of the commercial. UPDATE: GET YOUR VERY OWN “JEWISH UNDER…

The Rambam class continued today. After a one month layoff for the High Holidays we restarted from the beginning of Hilchos Deyos. I think it went better the second time around… The class is covering some very interesting material and I hope you enjoy listening. I invite you to join us at the Pacific Jewish Center Bais Medrash / Annex on Sunday mornings 8:50 AM.…

Last year, Amy Chua’s Tiger Mom philosophy and book made for a lot of great discussion. (It all went down during my blogcation Things I Would Have Blogged About in the Last Ten Days If I Were a Real Blogger) but didn’t include in that post because I thought I was going to blog about it anyway. I didn’t.) Chua’s book (Battle Hymn of the…

The Jewish People find themselves in the middle of the celebration of Sukkos. The Torah calls this holiday “The Time of our Rejoicing”. Sukkos is the holiday of happiness. We are supposed to be happy on this holiday. Why? When are you most happy? Why? A recent article in the LA Times provides some fascinating data about our happiness. Analyzing over half a billion messages…

The hectic yom tov schedule has made a severe dent in my ability to post as often as I would like over the last few weeks. This fortunate / unfortunate trend is likely to continue over the next week or so. I have a ton of great ideas for posts but have simply been unable to post them. Hopefully the posts will not become stale…

The Rambam class continued today. Today we began Chapter 3 in Hilchos Deyos. In this chapter the Rambam instructs us in some of the most basic approaches to life. Some of the examples revert back to Medieval science, but the lessons and message of using “modern medicine” to live a good life is an eternal message. The class is covering some very interesting material and…